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Last month, I met up with Jonah and his lovely wife at the Tamale Festival and gleefully ate until I was stuffed. We agreed the winner of the day was the green chile and cheese tamale from Mama’s Hot Tamales Cafe, which was conveniently located right on 7th Street, the location of the festival. I have a friend who loves tamales, and once I told him about Mama’s, he insisted I take him there.

He was a little confused when we walked up to the restaurant, and he saw the awning in front of the restaurant labeled as Institute for Urban Research and Development. It turns out that IURD sponsored the non-profit cafe. In addition to providing excellent food and good service, the restaurant provides job training for many every year.

Once we walked into the restaurant, we saw a sign that said to wait for Mama to be seated. My friend asked, “Well, where’s Mama?” As soon as he said that, Sandi “Mama” Romero appeared. She was friendly and welcomed us to pick our own table. We pretty much knew right away what we were going to order - the two tamales combo ($7.50). Basically, we pick two tamales and then we choose among tortilla soup, salad, or rice and beans. (If you want to skip the extras and just fill up on tamales, they are $2.75 each, but if you order 3 or more, the price becomes $2.50 each.) Since it was raining outside, we both opted for the tortilla soup. I really didn’t expect such a large bowl, but the tortilla soup could have been an entire meal for me. The soup arrived piping hot, in both temperature and spiciness. I do typically enjoy tortilla soup in general, but one of my pet peeves about this soup is when the tortilla strips in the soup are already soggy by the time I have my first taste. This definitely wasn’t the case at Mama’s. In addition, I had one spoonful that almost made me feel like I was having chips and salsa. The tortilla strip was still crispy, and in the same bite, I had some tomatoes, onions, cilantro, melted cheese, and the slight kick in the broth.

I could go on and on about the soup, but let’s get to the real action. Just so you know how popular Mama’s tamales really are, I had initially picked the beef in adobo sauce. I was disappointed to hear that someone had already purchased and picked up all of the beef tamales they had! Thus I wound up choosing the pork (Honduras style and wrapped in banana leaves) and vegetables and cheese tamales (wrapped in corn husk). The tamales were as good as I remembered. The masa was so moist and delicate. While I liked the pork tamale, it wasn’t my favorite. I like potatoes but not necessarily in the center of a tamale. That definitely threw me off on this tamale. The mixed vegetables in the second tamale were not impressive (literally one kernel of corn, one piece of diced carrot, 2 peas, one mushroom, etc.) but what was impressive was how the cheese was nice and gooey. While the veggies and cheese tamale appears plain, it was actually quite delicious. This is why I like Mama’s tamales.

We finished off our meal with an orange flan ($7). Basically it’s your typical flan with a good amount of orange zest in every bite. This was a lovely ending to a wonderful meal. I think one of the tricks about Mama’s food is that they look simple, but they are packed with flavor.

Mama’s Hot Tamales Cafe
2122 West 7th Street
Los Angeles, CA 90057
Phone: (213) 487-7474
Hours: 11am-3:30pm Daily

By Pauline (see more of her posts).